Railway journal box lubricator



Fell 22, 1955 .1 J. HENNESSY RAILWAY JOURNAL BOX LUBRICATOR Filed Sept.10, 1952 F l 51,. l

n \\\mlV/4V United States Patent O M' RAILWAY JOURNAL BOX LUBRICATORJames I. Hennessy, Chambersburg, Pa., assigner to Hennessy LubrieatorCompany, Inc., Chambersburg, Pa., a corporation of Delaware ApplicationSeptember 10, 1952, Serial No. 308,831

11 Claims. (Cl. 308-84) This invention relates to railway axle journallubricators and comprises a novel pump and distributor adapted to beapplied to the face of the journal and adapted to receive lubricant froma pump and deliver lubricant over a large area of the journal.

One object of the invention is to lter and screen the lubricant in itspassage to the journal so that cinders, dust, sand or other fragments ofa gritty, hard nature will not be fed into contact with the journalsurface.

A further object of the invention is to avoid feeding to the journalfibers, lint and other particles of waste which may accumulate under thejournal bearing as a result of waste grab which may produce undueheating of the journal and results in glazing.

A still further object is to provide a distributor with aninertia-operated lubricant pump which will supply an adequate amount oflubricant to a relatively wide area of the distributor before bringingit into contact with the journal.

Another object of the invention is to provide a lubricant padconstruction for an oil reservoir compartment which maintains,independent of pump action, a quantity of oil in the distributor. Evenif the oil in the pump and box has been congealed by cold weather, or ifthe pump is not eiective for other reasons, the oil trapped in thedistributor will lubricate the journal in its initial operation untilthe oil is heated by friction or until the pump is inspected.

Another object is to pump lubricant from the bottom of a journal box tothe journal by inertia of a weight within the distributor.

These and other detailed objects are attained by the stgicltlureillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in w 1c Figure l is atransverse vertical sectional view through the lower portion of arailway axle journal and box and the distributor.

Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section through the structure shownin Figure l.

Figure 3 is a longitudinal section on the line 3-3 of Figure 2, showingthe arrangements of the inlet valves.

The journal 1 mounts a box 2 in the usual manner. The lubricant pump ispositioned between the lower wall of the box and the journal. Itincludes a pump body having a bellows-like side wall 3 of exible plasticsuch as is marketed under the name neoprene or similar oil imperviousmaterial and includes a lower wall 4 of sheet metal. Wall 4 is providedwith inlet openings 5 and a similar upper wall 6 is provided with outletopenings 7. Associated with openings 5 is a disc 14 with retainer 14aforming a flap valve. A coil spring 17 thrusts walls 4 and 6 apart.

The pump upper wall 6 has a flap disc 18 provided with openings 19 andforming an outlet valve. Attached to llap 18 is a weight 21 with atransverse passage 22.

A casing 8 is secured at its lower end to pump side wall 3 and is madeof similar material and may lie against the wall of the journal box. Itcarries the distributor pad 9 of chenille, felt, waste yarn, or similarsoft porous material permeable to oil under pressure and exerting afiltering action to trap dirt, lint, etc., in the oil as it passesupward through the pad. The pad includes a journal engaging cover 10preferably knitted of hard twine woven to a thin porous back 11 which issewn to the upper edge of casing 8. Inside the pad are springs 13 orsome resilient material, such as sponge rubber, which prevent padPatented Feb. 22, 1955 9 rfm packing down and holds cover 10 againstjourna In operation, oil is supplied to the lower part of journal box 2where it collects under the lower wall 4 of the pump. As the vehicletravels, it is subject to shocks, jolts, and jars which cause weight 21to operate by inertia to compress spring 17 and the action and reactionof the weight and spring results in pumping the oil past and aroundinlet valve disc 14, filling the pump body 3 with oil and thendischarging oil through outlet valve disc 18 to packing 9 which leadsthe oil by capillary action to cover 11 and the surface of the journal.

The hard twine of cover 10 will feed oil to the journal surface but willnot fray and separate like cotton Waste and gather between the journaland bearing.

The details of the structure may be varied substantially withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use ofthose modifications coming within the scope of the claims iscontemplated.

What is claimed is:

l. In a railway journal lubricator including a lubricant distributorcomprising a top cover for application to a journal, a mass of fibrousmaterial beneath the cover, a casing enclosing the material and securedto the cover, a pump comprising a llexible body with top and bottomwalls forming a portion of said casing, means yieldingly thrusting saidwalls to a predetermined normal position, and an operating weight withinsaid casing and associated with one of the pump walls to move said wallsrelative to each other against the thrust of said means by the inertiaof the weight.

2. A railway journal lubricator as described in claim l in which thedistributor is mounted on springs which support the lubricatorindependently of the pump.

3. A lubricator as described in claim 1 in which coil springs arecompressed between the pad and opposite portions of the casing andprovide supports for the lubricator independently of the pump.

4. A lubricatoi-.as described in claim l in which the lowermost wall ofthe pump and casing is formed by a substantially rigid plate and theyielding means associated with the pump walls comprises a spring seatedon said plate, and the operating weight is carried on said spring.

5. In combination with a lubricant distributor comprising a pad with anouter surface arranged for application to the surface of a journal to belubricated, an oil reservoir having a liexible wall depending from theperimeter of said pad, an oil filter contained in said reservoir, andunderlying said pad, a pump provided with an inlet valve and with anoutlet valve discharging to said reservoir, and a weight associated withsaid exible wall to operate said pump by its inertia.

6. A railway journal lubricant distributor comprising a relatively thickand stili pad of fibrous material for application to a journal to belubricated, a relatively thin and exible sheet of oil-imperviousmaterial secured marginally to the pad and forming a compartment beneaththe pad, a mass of loosely assembled bers forming a filter disposedbetween said sheet and the pad, and pump structure forming a valvedpassage through said sheet for delivery of lubricant to said fibers.

7. A railway journal lubricant distributor comprising a containerincluding a cover of relatively hard knitted material for application tothe surface of a journal and a casing of oil-impervious material securedto the marginal portions of said cover, yielding means between saidcover and casing for holding the container expanded, and lubricant pumpstructure at least partly received in said container and provided with apassageway for lubricant from below the casing to the interior of thecontainer.

8. A railway journal lubricant distributor comprising a relatively thickand stiif pad of fibrous material with a substantially imperforate facefrom side to side and from end to end of the pad for application to ajournal to be lubricated, a relatively thin and exible sheet ofoil-impervious material secured marginally to the pad and forming acompartment beneath the pad, there being a passage through said sheetfor delivery of lubricant to the underside of the pad, and a mass ofloosely assembled tlbers orming a lter disposed between said sheet and epa 9. A railway journal lubricator comprising a lubricant distributorincluding a container having a journal-engaging upper cover ofoil-permeable material and a lower casing of flexible oil-imperviousmaterial depending from the perimeter of said cover, there being a massof fibrous material substantially lling said container, yielding meansthrusting said cover and the lower portion of said casing apart andforming a support for said cover, and a pump enclosed by the containerincluding an inertia weight and a yielding support for the sameindependent of said means.

10. A railway journal lubricator distributor comprising a lubricantcontainer having an upper cover of knitted hard twine with a concavearcuate contour for application to a journal, and a casing of exibleimpervious material depending from the perimeter of said cover, therebeing a mass of brous material substantially filling said container, andsupporting springs spaced apart transversely of the axis of the arcuatecontour and divergng downwardly, the lowermost portion of said casingbeing arched upwardly between the lower portions of said springs to forma recess of substantial volume at the lower center of the distributor.

11. A railway journal lubricator comprising a distributor as describedin claim 10 and a pump including an inertia weight within the lubricantcontainer and a spring support for the weight positioned in said recessand in the area between the container-supporting springs.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 368,937Flynt Aug. 30, 1887 2,044,248 Keys June 16, 1936 2,150,935 Miller Mar.21, 1939 2,156,377 De Motteo May 2, 1939 2,264,250 Shoemaker Nov. 25,1941

